What are some low-cost activities we can do as a family?

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milimac

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Looking for “free” things we can do as a family (Mom and Dad in 40’s, two boys 12 and 9).
 
Don’t know about where you are, but we have local farms where you can harvest strawberries, etc (whatever the harvest it). With boys, the dirtier you get the happier they are- LOL!

Visiting historical places that are full of tales of swashbuckling and fighting is always good, too.

Going to the local park and throwing the football/Frisbee/baseball and picnicking is fun and free. Riding bikes/skating…

Check local high schools and churches for free performances/activities if your boys are into the arts (or not, if you want to expose them to it!).
 
Civil war reenactments. My kids love them and now participate.
State or national parks your kids can become Junior Rangers by filling out booklets and returning them.
Historical locations.
Walk through a local Catholic or Veterans Cemetery, or any cemetery. The older the better. My dad used to pack a lunch and we would picnic at cemeteries. Then we would walk among the graves praying for the people and their ancestors. We would spend time talking about who they may have been, what life may have been like for them. Surprisingly many beautiful memories made during those peaceful walks through history.
Teach your kids to play Uno, rummy, poker, or whatever is your favorite card game is. Make a tradition of playing together on Monday evenings or whatever evening works best for your family. If you don’t like cards, try chess, checkers, scrabble, clue or even Operation. My kids love pictionary and musical chairs.
Add a family prayer tradition. For boys you could do a more active prayer like Stations of the Cross. My kids colored pictures I printed off the computer and we put them up outside, but in bad weather we put them up around our house.
Fishing and hiking are also favorites with my kids.
One of my boys lives carving. Another blacksmithing, and all my kids like hunting for rocks. Geodes are a particular favorite. We’ve collected do many cool rocks–many with fossils–that we’ve made a beautiful rock garden. Since then we’ve added statues of saints to the garden.
My boys are excellent cooks. Include them in meal preparations, assign specific chores to get them started. Or pick a favorite family dessert and have them help bake it. Experiment and see what happens when you change things up. Some will be horrible failures and become family jokes, others may become new family specialties. Either way it helps kids laugh at their mistakes and get over their fear of trying new things.
There are so many free or low cost things to do with kids. Maybe these will get you started and as you start exploring, more ideas might creep into your mind.
 
milimac said:
Looking for “free” things we can do as a family (Mom and Dad in 40’s, two boys 12 and 9).
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FORMED.org

It’s free if your parish purchases a parish wide subscription.

Otherwise, you can purchase a individual subscription for only $9.99 per month. There are many programs that you and family can watch, listen too & read.

God Bless!
 
Sugabee43 said:
Don’t know about where you are, but we have local farms where you can harvest strawberries, etc (whatever the harvest it). With boys, the dirtier you get the happier they are- LOL!
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It’s funny, I thought of this as soon as I saw the title of the thread. 🙂 Actually, this time of year it’s pretty much only apples and pumpkins left around here, but other times of year there are all sorts of other stuff.

And in the non-winter, you can try growing some vegetables if you have anywhere to grow them. it’s not free, but seeds are pretty cheap. You could look here for some information, or just ask at a local nursery: colostate.edu/Dept/CoopExt/4dmg/VegFruit/vegs.htm. There are probably things you could do no to prepare for next spring, but I’m not very good at that sort of thing myself. 🙂

You might also look online for a tourist site for your area. It’s amazing how people local to an area never do the things tourists do. Some of those things are usually free.

Have fun! 🙂

–Jen
 
revert_jen said:
It’s funny, I thought of this as soon as I saw the title of the thread. 🙂 Actually, this time of year it’s pretty much only apples and pumpkins left around here, but other times of year there are all sorts of other stuff.

And in the non-winter, you can try growing some vegetables if you have anywhere to grow them. it’s not free, but seeds are pretty cheap. You could look here for some information, or just ask at a local nursery: colostate.edu/Dept/CoopExt/4dmg/VegFruit/vegs.htm. There are probably things you could do no to prepare for next spring, but I’m not very good at that sort of thing myself. 🙂

You might also look online for a tourist site for your area. It’s amazing how people local to an area never do the things tourists do. Some of those things are usually free.

Have fun! 🙂

–Jen
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LOL on your last item.

There was once a “Top 10 Reasons you might be from San Antonio [TX]” and number 4 was “You’ve never been to the Alamo.”

:):)🙂

ICXC NIKA
 
What do you 12 yo and 9 yo like? Take that into account first, as you go through your possibilities.

First off, I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that you split up one parent per boy and take them to the same places on separate days: as in, your wife takes one boy to see one venue, you take the other boy to another. The next time out, you switch boys and either go back to the same places or else go to places more to each boy’s liking. We have done this with our twins, and even though they are each the other one’s best friend, they like it very much.

Why? a) children like undivided attention from one parent and b) children who have had this kind of undivided attention will accept date night from a first-hand perspective. There is something special about one-on-one time spent with someone without interruptions.

If you do this, you will also find it far easier to choose something “everyone likes.” You’ll be looking for things that just one parent has in common with one boy, and no one has to worry about having someone along who would not have chosen this destination if it were just up to him.

You can also have one set of you stay at home together.

Ideas:
–Find a vintage movie from the library to watch, chosen for a particular child
–Teach the child to make a dish that is his particular favorite. It is a lot easier to teach cooking when you only have one pupil,there is no rush and there is no audience.
–The library also has “cultural passes,” which allow patrons to check out family passes to local attractions such as museums, etc, at no cost.
–If you have a hobby for which you own the equipment, do that with your child: fishing, bird-watching, hunting, kayaking. If you golf, well, the driving range isn’t that expensive
–If you have a talent you are known for, show your child how you do it
–Go on a volunteer day that your child would find worthwhile. A local example in the Portland area would be tree-planting or pulling invasive ivy in local nature areas.
–Take a hike in a place that is meaningful to you or your child
–Take your child to watch one of his friend’s ballgames
–Teach your child to play chess or some other game you enjoy

Don’t forget to use your phone, digital camera or other device to take free pictures or to make free movies.

OK, what to do together? I’d say visiting local attractions that are free. That varies greatly from one area to the next. The other thing you can do for free these days is to take digital pictures of the outings you and your wife took privately with each son and put together a video or a slide show about it on your computer. You can also get family photos scanned into the computer and work with one of your kids making trips down memory lane to enjoy with the other parent and the other child. It is more fun to have non-participants to surprise. If you and your 9 yo put together a video celebrating your 12 yo or your wife or all the trips you’ve taken to a particular destination, that could be a lot of fun. You can go through pictures with one child and document who the people are in the pictures that your children do not know or barely remember.
 
Not many things can beat going out into the woods, particularly if there is a stream running through it. Kids find all kinds of things. One can build a fire and cook things and tell stories. My kids enjoyed hearing about those in the family who had gone before.

I agree with the poster who recommended going to cemeteries. Seems strange, but for a kid that’s really enjoyable. We used to hunt for interesting names, oldest dates of birth, participation in wars, determining whether the deceased had likely died in the war or thereafter. It can really be interesting because it gives an excuse to discuss history in a way that’s more engaging. In a little cemetery near where I grew up there are Confederate soldiers buried; some who died during the Civil War. Also some “doughboys” and WWII participants. There are very old graves of little kids, and we could discuss the diseases of their era and what perhaps was their cause of death. Some stones are so old they are barely readable, if at all. People used to put short poems on them ages ago, which is interesting. We would sometimes bring paper and lead pencils along to trace out those worn letters. Far from being “creepy” it was intensely interesting.

I took my own children to that cemetery and they have taken their children.
 
Hi milimac,

I agree with poster Jen who suggested doing things that tourists would do in your area.

That’s actually a lot of fun, and my husband and I have done that.

You can sign up to receive information from the tourism or visitor’s bureau for the area that you live in. It might also be called the Chamber of Commerce for the area that you live in too-or they might all be separate businesses. Anyway, they usually list free activities in your area that are going on, that are family activities.

I would also check with your state tourism bureau for some ideas, too. They will have a guide book that lists info. for activities in cities in your surrounding area. You might be able to do something in the next town or two over from you, that might just cost a little bit in gas money, but maybe where you could take a picnic lunch with you, or a snack and go out for a nice day trip. 🙂

Also, like Easter Joy mentioned, the library is another good place to check. They should also have a calendar of family activities listed, too.
 
Ridgerunner said:
Not many things can beat going out into the woods, particularly if there is a stream running through it. Kids find all kinds of things. One can build a fire and cook things and tell stories. My kids enjoyed hearing about those in the family who had gone before.

I agree with the poster who recommended going to cemeteries. Seems strange, but for a kid that’s really enjoyable. We used to hunt for interesting names, oldest dates of birth, participation in wars, determining whether the deceased had likely died in the war or thereafter. It can really be interesting because it gives an excuse to discuss history in a way that’s more engaging. In a little cemetery near where I grew up there are Confederate soldiers buried; some who died during the Civil War. Also some “doughboys” and WWII participants. There are very old graves of little kids, and we could discuss the diseases of their era and what perhaps was their cause of death. Some stones are so old they are barely readable, if at all. People used to put short poems on them ages ago, which is interesting. We would sometimes bring paper and lead pencils along to trace out those worn letters. Far from being “creepy” it was intensely interesting.

I took my own children to that cemetery and they have taken their children.
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These are some of the greatest memories of my Daddy I’ve got. Very peaceful and beautiful. I still have some of the rubbings I made of the headstones. It’s one activity that can happen anywhere because everyplace has cemeteries. Each time we move it’s one of the first picnic spots we find. My kids all love it, from tiny babies to older teens. I pray one day they take their kids as well. If nothing else I’ll bring my grand kids. It’s unfortunate so many people find it strange and get creeped out by cemeteries. It’s a terrific place to learn about history, culture, traditions and prayer in a way kids don’t tend to find intimidating. Now we visit our own relatives in cemeteries as well.
 
I don’t know where in Colorado you are but in Denver you can visit the Capitol and the mint. Mother Cabrini’s Shrine is a good place.
 
bitterhope said:
These are some of the greatest memories of my Daddy I’ve got. Very peaceful and beautiful. I still have some of the rubbings I made of the headstones. It’s one activity that can happen anywhere because everyplace has cemeteries. Each time we move it’s one of the first picnic spots we find. My kids all love it, from tiny babies to older teens. I pray one day they take their kids as well. If nothing else I’ll bring my grand kids. It’s unfortunate so many people find it strange and get creeped out by cemeteries. It’s a terrific place to learn about history, culture, traditions and prayer in a way kids don’t tend to find intimidating. Now we visit our own relatives in cemeteries as well.
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I’m going to go a bit off topic here, but I think you’ll understand. For years I wondered about a grove of ancient cedar trees in the cemetery I was talking about. There were some grave stones scattered among them…very old stones. The Confederate cavalrymens’ graves were right next to the grove. As a kid, I imagined those soldiers gathering at dusk among those trees to talk about the war and about life. I imagined sometimes I could see the legs of the horses among those old cedar trunks.

Later on I learned why those cedars were there. Red cedars, you see, are slow growers, but they’re hardy and live an exceedingly long time. I learned that in the earliest settler days people had no access to carved grave stones. Perhaps a slab of creek rock would serve. But many of them simply planted a little cedar tree to mark the grave of their loved one; figuring, rightly, that the cedar would mark the grave for perhaps centuries.

Anyway, my children (and now grandchildren) love that story, and it has given them an additional appreciation for that grove as well as the occasional slab of creek rock within it. Those are the markers of the old settlers, buried long before the Confederate cavalrymen first drew breath.

Next time you go to a really old cemetery, look for ancient cedar trees. If you find some, you probably now know why they are there.

Oh yes, red cedars are very shallow rooted. That’s because they’re “nature’s answer” to shallow, rocky soil, catching every drop of rain as it falls. The old timers knew the roots would not go down far enough to disturb the grave itself.
 
-go hiking if there are trails near you
-going to a nearby town & walking around visiting places just to explore & see what is there
-playing board games or card games
-doing a service day at a local food bank or other place
-going to a museum (historical, art or whatever the boys would like) when there is a free admission day
-get some movies from the library to watch at home
-ask your local fire station if you can visit to see the trucks, talk to the fireman, etc.
 
I once had a fun time with two of my daughters going through an older part of the commercial part of town, looking for old architectural decor. If, in such a place, you look up, you see all kinds of decorative things, largely carved in stone. Very interesting stuff, and unless you’re looking for it, you will miss seeing most of it.
 
Ridgerunner

Thank you. I will certainly pass this on to my kids. And I’m going to be planting some red cedars for my daddy, my brother and my babies. Yes, I’ve noticed many cedar groves over the years. It’s nice to get some answers to my long time wondering. God bless you. I really think the Holy Spirit prompted you to post this. It’s something my soul needed to hear tonight. Thank you very much.
 
We have five children. (all out of the house now) My kids loved animals. I think most kids do. We volunteered together at the local Human Society. We would go together and walk dogs, help with kittens, feed horses that were rescued, etc. It was a lot of fun and a great charitable contribution.
 
One thought: The kids had to be 12 or over to participate with caring for the animals with our supervision, but they had various “project helpers” that the younger ones could do. (Help with food donations being brought in, etc). Sorry, I forgot the age requirement. I love that you are looking for things to do as a family. God Bless You!
 
If you live in Colorado, you should definitely try to visit the Abbey of Saint Walburga. It is a rare thing in the United States…an abbey of Benedictine Choir Nuns. They are most impressive. It is a chance to learn about a very special form of religious life and to participate in their celebration of the liturgy.

walburga.org/
 
Don_Ruggero said:
If you live in Colorado, you should definitely try to visit the Abbey of Saint Walburga. It is a rare thing in the United States…an abbey of Benedictine Choir Nuns. They are most impressive. It is a chance to learn about a very special form of religious life and to participate in their celebration of the liturgy.

walburga.org/
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You reminded me of the stations of the cross in San Luis Colorado. There is also Bishop’s Castle and a nice river walk in Pueblo, Colorado Springs, and Canon City. Don’t forget the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. Glenwood Canyon has Hidden Lake quite a walk up to it but worth every step. You should wait for spring for that and check to make sure it is open.
 
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